MÉLIKA HASHEMI and NASIM ASGARI

THE BREAK AN ERROR, THE ERROR A PASSAGEWAY

June 9 – July 22, 2023

Thrift on Kent
50 Kent Ave.
Kitchener N2G 3R1

The Break an Error, the Error a Passageway uses the poetic possibilities of patchwork to draw disparate images and materials close. When presented side-by-side, images and videos become split-second captures, creating patterns. Quilts reference codes and ways of encoding information, allowing for the generative breaking of strict patterns.

There is a glitch created each time one piece of fabric meets another; each intersection a fading memory where information has been lost, altered or distorted. Inspired by the visual language of glitches and multiplicity, The Break an Error, the Error a Passageway lends itself to the Instagram grid aesthetic, while its title draws from Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto by Legacy Russell.

The quilt, skillfully crafted by Asgari, incorporates a hidden layer of medicinal soil (Khak-e Shifa) within one of its patches, while the velvet fabrics, adorned with digital prints by Hashemi, evoke a vision of 'softer' digital futures. These elements suggest the emergence of a future shaped by intersectional feminist consciousness, rooted in the power of envisioning better worlds. As such, the installation refuses to become just another image consumed rapidly, devoid of its context. The Break an Error, the Error a Passageway challenges the desensitization that often accompanies doom scrolling, allowing us to reclaim our collective capacity to build, share, and connect.

The artists further explore the ways relationships between URL and IRL can be made tangible by uploading patches of the quilt to Instagram (@thebreakanerror).

Gallery

The hanging patchwork quilt is hung in front of a window near another quilt in a box.

Closeup of the quilt. There are patches of grey reflective material mixed with other unknown images of texture and objects.

Mélika Hashemi is an artist-researcher based in Kitchener, Ontario. Using art and emerging technologies, she finds ways to creatively renew intersectionality and empowerment beyond screens and institutional walls. Mélika is the course author of Digital Spirituality: New Media Art in the Middle East/North Africa Diaspora and co-author of the book O Lone Traveller: Rehearsing Self-Advocacy at the Border. Her research engages with critical arts pedagogies and visual discourse analyses, particularly within New Media art and newer -isms put forth by South Asian, Southwest Asian and North African (SASWANA) diaspora with proximity to Islam.

Tehran-born, Tkaronto-based Nasim Asgari, is a dreamer, thinker, seeker and student of the truth. She is a multidisciplinary artist– songwriting, poetry & performance at the core of her practice. Writing from the age of 9 & performing since 12, she has cultivated a voice and words to relay the truth & bring attention to what is often undermined & dismissed. Her artistry is expansive, collaborative & powerful. Nasim has performed, published, facilitated workshops and events, and contributed to art exhibitions, movies, poetry slams & protests worldwide. Her debut poetry anthology is titled 'what was swept under the persian rug.' She is currently exploring textiles, writing music & completing her second poetry collection.

This project is made possible through the support of the Good Foundation, Region of Waterloo Arts Fund and the Keith and Winifred Shantz fund for the arts held by Waterloo Region Community Foundation.